Woman who released alligator at Chicago O'Hare while high on crack charged with animal cruelty

A woman who released this alligator in a passenger terminal at Chicago O'Hare has been charged with animal cruelty. (Special/Chicago Police Department)

A woman who released an alligator in a passenger terminal at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport while she was high on crack has been charged with animal cruelty.

Alexis T. Prokopchuk left her three-year-old, two-foot alligator to fend for itself on Nov. 1 in O’Hare’s Terminal 3, where another traveler found it under an escalator and called police, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Prokopchuk, 29, was charged with animal cruelty and reckless conduct after telling police she ditched the gator on accident because she was high on crack, heroin and other drugs.

Police wrangled the alligator and turned it over to the Chicago Herpetological Society.